Speaking ahead of Tuesday night's last 16 first leg, Pellegrini said: 'I think that last year was different to this year. We arrived at this stage after playing 19 games in two months, I don’t think it was our best moment. I hope this year we will do it after not playing so many games.'

City came through a traumatic group stage, only progressing thanks to a win at Roma in the last match.

'I think that Sergio is one of the five top players in the world. When he is 100 per cent fit, it is very difficult to stop him. Last year he couldn’t play the way he wanted to do it. Sergio is coming back from a long injury but between Everton he is adding minutes and seeing him against Stoke and Newcastle, I think he is in his best performance.'

Pellegrini is confident that City can deal with the loss of Toure, who sits out the last 90 minutes of a three-match ban.

'I prefer to play with Yaya and I think we play better with him,' he said.

'We can play without Yaya - also we played without him against Roma and Bayern and I think we have a good squad to replace him.'

Bony (left) signed for City from Swansea during the January transfer window for £30 million